If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Re: Great article on planting a bee garden

They are related somehow I believe, and I've heard it called "wild morning glory." However... domestic morning glory will stay put. Bindweed (convolvulus arvensis) will take over everything. It's the western version of kudzu. It spreads via seed or rhizome, outgrows most any food crop, and is very difficult to eradicate. I don't use chemicals, but I'm told you can hear bindweed snicker at Roundup.

Re: Great article on planting a bee garden

Jen - Very nice article! Thanks for sharing.

Apiator...I think bindweed it what we call "hen and chicks vine" here in TN. But its not invasive here. I baby the stuff and try to help it grow, but it won't take and only grows in one tiny corner of my property. Wait...maybe babying it is the problem...it takes it from weed status to wanted-plant status. I need to go baby some bermuda grass and see if it will die too!!

Re: Great article on planting a bee garden

For the love of all that is good, do NOT plant bindweed. It is the most invasive species of plant I've ever seen. Our entire yard is infested with it and after 4 years of no chemicals I actually was driven to use weed killer. It didn't even touch it, and now we have learned to just live with it after 6 years.

Re: Great article on planting a bee garden

Originally Posted by kincade

For the love of all that is good, do NOT plant bindweed. It is the most invasive species of plant I've ever seen. Our entire yard is infested with it and after 4 years of no chemicals I actually was driven to use weed killer. It didn't even touch it, and now we have learned to just live with it after 6 years.

Bindweed = fromhell.

Hmmm...it doesn't seem to like our area very well. Used to see a lot of it when I was a kid, now it's a rarity. It may not like our heavy clay soil. What kind of soil do you guys have out in the Western side of the country?

Re: Great article on planting a bee garden

Originally Posted by JulieBee

Hmmm...it doesn't seem to like our area very well. Used to see a lot of it when I was a kid, now it's a rarity. It may not like our heavy clay soil. What kind of soil do you guys have out in the Western side of the country?

Re: Great article on planting a bee garden

Kincade, there is hope. Maybe not in your generation, but there is hope. This makes perfect sense once I read Alan Savory's Holistic Management. Bindweed, and all the other weeds we hate, are pioneer species. Their job is to colonize damaged or new soils, put down roots, grow and reproduce quickly, grow in the worst conditions possible, stop wind and water erosion... hold the soil together for the next wave of species to come along. In its turn, each species leaves the soil with more nutrients that it was previously lacking.

So, eventually, bindweed, left to its own devices, improves the soil to the point where it can't live there any more. But if all you do is chop it and throw it in the trash, all its hard work goes for naught. And yours. (And mine, before I took up lazy gardening!)

Re: Great article on planting a bee garden

Thanks for the article. I consider our soil to be exceptionally healthy to be honest with you; our crops grow very well on their own, it is well balanced, etc. The problem is that it will literally grow up around our tomatoes and other veggies and choke them out if not removed. We've learned to live with it but we don't really have another choice. I won't use chemicals again, and horticultural vinegar just burns the visible parts and leaves the root system intact.

I should add that we are next to a canal, and that is the likely source of the root system. I doubt we'll ever be able to get rid of it.

Re: Great article on planting a bee garden

Originally Posted by Apiator

They are related somehow I believe, and I've heard it called "wild morning glory." However... domestic morning glory will stay put. Bindweed (convolvulus arvensis) will take over everything. It's the western version of kudzu. It spreads via seed or rhizome, outgrows most any food crop, and is very difficult to eradicate. I don't use chemicals, but I'm told you can hear bindweed snicker at Roundup.

It is part of the morning glory family ( another Asian invasive weed) but as you said a weed straight from hell. Roundup (some nasty stuff) will only inhibit it but won't kill it. Planting pumpkins has the same effect as roundup but is organic.

Re: Great article on planting a bee garden

Originally Posted by SparksBee

I wish "babying" the multiflora rose around here would make it die. Ugggh. That stuff is unbearable.

I've never heard of multiflora rose. But a quick search on internet brought up an interesting fact, "multiflora rose has been planted in highway median strips to serve as crash barriers"
Wow!! That must be a serious superplant!